Back in the day when a TV show was getting it's cast back together for a reunion special it would usually be a one off TV movie. Well now the trend seems to be to get one or all of the actors together and have them either be interviewed or ask each other questions about there expirences on the show or movie in question which is something that barely works as while it worked for the Harry Potter special it failed for the Friends special with sadly this special really taking more of a cue from the Friends special then the Harry Potter one and so then join me as I review the special that will make alot of us feel really old with the special in question being called simply just "Hannah Montana 20th Anniversary Special" enjoy.
This special much like all of the most recent specials doesn't really have a plot to it with this being something that make alot of sense as it's just Miley being interviewed and that's it. Which I guess is fine if that's your thing but some thing that's gone on for this long you do expect there to be something bigger and something more grand for the special yet that's not something we get as all we get is something that feels like a carbon copy of what they did in the Friends special even down to having someone who had nothing to do with the original show serve kind of like a host for the special with this format being one that doesn't work as it doesn't give the fans what they want to see as they want to see those characters again even if it's for the last time. However tho to this specials credit it does kind of give the fans what they want with that being something that will be discussed later on in the review with the interviewing segments not really being all that bad altho they do bring the special down as we don't get to find out any backstage secrets from the show itself as it's all very surface level stuff which again is fine but it would have been more rewarding for the fans that where with the show since day one to find out some of those backstage secrets as that is something that would make the special feel exactly that special however it is understandable why they didn't do that as this is a big property for Disney and therefor might not have wanted to have to much stuff revealed about the show especially as it might have tainted the show legacy but it still would have been nice if we got to hear some backstage secrets tho in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this special is one this specials executive producers Miley Cyrus and one of this special executive producers Alex Cooper. Also starring in this special is Billy Ray Cyrus , Noah Cyrus , Tish Cyrus , Selena Gomez , Chappell Roan and Jamal Sims. There is one thing wrong with whom is starring in this special and that's the face that so few of the original stars of this show are in this special with alot of them appearing only archive footage which for alot of them is fine as they do have alot of things going on but there are some of them who aren't as busy and very easily could have come down for the day to do this special as without them all we get is a bunch 0of nobodies essentially who are either fans of the show or did a few episodes of the show and that's really it with the few exceptions of course being Miley , Billy Ray and oddly enough Noah Cyrus as she played alot of the little girls seen on the show. While having celebrity guests on a reunion special is something that does work as it does show the impact of the show itself it's not why the fans of this special are tuning in to watch it as they want to see the actors from the show talking abut there time on the show and there expirence in working on the show as due to the fact that alot of the original shows actors are busy in there own right and therefor we were never going to get a reunion episode in the traditional sense there still should have been some effort to get as much of the original cast back for this special as the fans of the show aren't going to care about the celebrities that loved the show rather they are instead going to care about what the original actors loved or hated about making the show. As that is something will mean alot more to them then knowing what some famous singer thought of the show and yet it's the one thing that this special doesn't give us the chance to find out.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual interviews that are actually in this special well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual interviews that are actually in this special was in all honesty not that bad. With alot of the people being interviewed not rally tripping over each other or asking the same questions which is something that they very easily could have done given just how small the list of people that are in this special is and yet at the same time it does make that the interviews in this special were as good as they were as host Alex Cooper is a podcaster and therefor she would of course no how to interview people. While she does only interview Miley Cyrus in this special Miley herself handles alot more of the interviews and she is passable at the job which is fair enough as she doesn't get to interview people with the best person being interviewed in this special being none other then Miley Cyrus herself with this being something that does make sense as she is the main tar of the special and gets all of the specials screen time with her giving us some good insight into what she was like at that time when she's being interviewed by Alex but it's when she's being interviewed by the other guest stars that she does kind of faulter as much like herself those people that are asking her these questions don't usually get the chance to do so all that often. While we do get some fun questions asked like what the audition process was like for her it would have been more interesting if she was asked something like how did she keep herself grounded when the show was taking off as it would have been very easy for anyone let alone a then twelve year old kid to get swept up in it all.
There was just something missing from this special that held it back from being as good as it could have been. As the special does feel alot more like a tribute to Miley Cyrus then it does Hannah Montana which is something that could be seen as being fair enough as not only was she the star of that show but also the most well known person coming out of the show as well however it still would have been nice to see some of the actors from the show or even the film appear in this special as they are all apart of the shows history and to just focus on one persons history with the show and character does do a slight disservice to the show as a whole. Yet the special isn't held back by this as we do get alot of insight from Miley be it her just walking through the whole set or her being asked questions as she does give give alot of good insight into what life was like for her when she was making the show and this is also a big issue for the special as the show isn't about her it's about the show Hannah Montana and therefor there should have been interviews from if not he other actors then why not get the original creators and producers in for this special as they would have great insight into the show given the fact that they helped to create it in the first place they had Gary Marsh who was big at Disney Channel at the time and yet they only have him read the email that he wrote to the other producers convincing them to take a chance on Miley as she has that "It" factor and while that's great that's really the only bit of look that we get from the behind the scenes of the show and it's not enough. Given the fact that this special takes the interview approach then why not interview people who had a helping hand in making the show in the first place as they are just as important to the show legacy and it's history then what Miley Cyrus herself is.
Whilst it might seem like that i'm hating on this special i'm really not it's just that there was so much promise for this special to be as good as what The Muppet Show 2026 was. With that special doing something that this special should have done by having it be the next episode of the show and while there are contributing factors as to why that was never going to be the case with this special as alot of the original shows actors are on other successful shows now going the same route as Friends: The Reunion which is an odd choice as while the makers of that special couldn't have known just how bad that that special was going to be thanks to it's approach the makers of this special would have known that and yet they still went ahead and did it that way. This is something that will always boggle my mind as the whole point of a reunion is get the original actors back together with us the audience not wanting to see the actors being interviewed by someone who claims to be a fan but is only there because of the fact that there being payed to be there as that is something that will never sit right with the fan and yet it's something that the makers of this special went and did but to this specials credit it does try to mix it up by having Miley herself conduct alot of the interviews which was a nice thing as then we the audience get to hear what it was like for other people and not just this one person and while that does make this already tired formular feel slightly new again it is a trend that does need to stop. As we want a proper reunion special for any TV show to have the actors be in character and having another adventure and while this formular does somewhat work it's not one that works for sitcoms.
Incase you were wondering why Miley was saying last year that there was going to be something planned for the twentieth anniversary this year this special does actually address that. As she apparently remembered some advice that she got from Dolly Parton where she said if you want something to happen announce it first and then they can't say no which was a really good idea as Miley did spend alot of the last year just saying that there was going to be something big for this year without actually taking a single meeting with Disney before hand this is something that des also explain why in alot of those interviews where she did say that that she never gave away any kind of details as to what the big surprise would have been as she herself had no idea of if this special would even get to be a thing in the first place. This is something that is kind of bold move to make as while she is a big named star there was still no guarantee that Disney would even pick up the phone and call her to ask about doing a special in the first place which is something that does lead you to wonder what plan b would have been if this special never got made in the first place would it have been a watch along of the first episode or would it have been something completely different as she very easily could have done a special concert and just sung sings from the show and movie and had a few guest stars from both appear on stage with her and it would have worked just fine and yet in doing that it would have excluded those that couldn't get tickets to the event. While a proper reunion episode would have been vert much preferred the fact that we got this special at all is still something to behold as Disney didn't have to do anything for this anniversary and yet they went ahead and produced a whole new special for it.
Out of this and The Muppet Show 2026 it's clear which one got the bigger marketing budget as while you couldn't escape The Muppet Show 2026 here with this special we got one teaser and then last week we got the trailer and that was it. As there was nothing else released to help to promote this special at all no clips from the special no first looks nothing we just got the teaser , the trailer and the poster therefor it wouldn't be surprising if there are some of you out there who perhaps didn't know that this special was a thing in the first place as Disney have done nothing to let you know that it was being released when they should have put alot of thought and effort into marketing the special. Maybe they thought that the brand name and the fact that it's got Miley Cyrus in it would have been enough to promote the special which would be understandable but it's also not enough as not alot of people would have seen the trailer or would have seen the poster and therefor wouldn't have known that the special was a thing in the first place and whole they did get Miley on Disney Channel recently and do a Disney Channel Wand they don't mention this special at all during that ident she just mentions Hannah Montana and that's it. Whilst this is something that would be understandable if the special was also airing on TV as then you could say that there are adverts for the special being shown on TV all the time it's not as it's bein shown on Disney+ and yet they've done nothing to let you no that this special was ever a thing in the first place therefor it wouldn't be all that surprising if not alot of people saw this special as they just wouldn't know that it's a thing in the first place where as we saw what kind of numbers that The Muppet Show 2026 was getting for Disney+ and alot of that does come down to the fact that they did a fantastic job in marketing that special.
Now then this special has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly fifty eight minuets and forty seven seconds. Which was a decent enough time for this special as the special doesn't really have alot of ground to cover thanks to what type of reunion show that this one is but at the same time tho this special could have been done with being a bit shorter as it does start to feel repetitive alot of the time as the special does have a very strict formular with them doing an interview with Miley and then she does one with a guest somewhere around the set and then maybe we'll get a song from a newly recorded concert which is something that does get a bit boring. However if the special did try and do something new like giving us these pieces of back ground information like what gave the creators of the show the idea for the show in the first place and what was like for people when the show really took of just things like that as that would have broken the special formular up a bit and heck they even could have had a series of where are they now scenes where we catch up with actors from the show to see not only where they are now but also find out what it is that they've been up to since the show went of the air. Just something would have done as that would have made the special feel more exactly that special and less like something that whilst it does have alot of care put into it also feels like it was made at the last minuet and while the special could have been a little bit shorter the fact that it is as along as it is does give us the audience a chance to live in that world and feel like whatever age we all where when episode one first started airing but I really will admit that this special really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is a musical that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual songs that are actually featured / presented to us in this very special well then in all honesty I i all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual songs that are actually featured / presented to us in this very special was in all honesty really good. While the special only has four song in the whole special with the first three being songs from the show and the fourth being one just for this special the three songs from the show are still really good in the songs with the three from the show and film being in no particualr order "This Is the Life" , "Best Of Both Worlds" and "The Climb" all three of which are really good songs in there own right with the same thig even being true for the specials fourth song which is hard to find the name for. With the best song in the whole entire special being "Best Of Both Worlds" as it is one of the songs that we all really associate with Hannah Montana and therefor it would have felt weird not having that song in this special with Miley still being able to sing that song just just as good as she did back in 2006. With the really only thing that does let the song being more of nitpick then anything anything else as she sings the song first which is something that does make sense as it was the shows opening theme song but at the same time it would have been more of a fun way to say goodbye to this special if it was the final song that she did in the concert with the concert stuff being the closest that the special gets to being a Hannah Montana special with the rest of the specials songs being just as good in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall while The Muppet Show 2026 is the best special released thus far this year it's the Harry Potter reunion special that's the better special given the talk show like format that both that special and this special are quite clearly going for as while this special is a good special in it's own right there's just so much holding it back from being as good as it could have been in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very special in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very special really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 6.5 out 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the mages that I personally used in this very review from IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very post being the really great Google Images really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with alot of them really being really better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on Google Images really are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.
